Mistakes During Outpatient Care on the Rise, Study Finds

Although researchers have looked extensively at how
mistakes made in hospitals can affect patients, little attention has been paid to the mistakes made
during outpatient care. According to a study published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), this area needs to be explored because outpatient provider mistakes are
on the rise - and the effects can be devastating.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College studied the National Practitioner
Data Bank - which includes information about malpractice payments made
for medical providers - and found that in 2009, 10,739 malpractice payments
were made to patients and over 52 percent were the result of errors made
during outpatient care. This percentage accounted for $1.5 billion in
payments made on behalf of medical providers.

This is an alarming discovery, because, as the authors wrote in their study,
"Malpractice claims represent the tip of the iceberg for patient
safety events. For every claim, there are likely many near-misses or events
with less severe outcomes that can be related to process errors similar
to those that resulted in the claim."

Causes for Outpatient Errors and How to Remedy Them

According to the
JAMA study, the most common mistakes made during outpatient care are related
to diagnostic errors, treatment decisions and
surgical mistakes - that can result in permanent damage to patients and even death. There
are several causes for these errors that the researchers cite, including:

In order to remedy these problems, and reduce the amount of mistakes made
during outpatient care, study researchers suggest that facilities adopt
policies that will improve communication, so that vital information does
not fall through the cracks.

"The problems associated with outpatient safety may not be easy to
fix, but the adoption of electronic health records is already improving
communication between doctors," lead researcher Dr. Tara Bishop said
in a statement. "Patient safety is likely to improve markedly as
more and more doctors' offices change the way their records are kept,
updated and accessed."

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.

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